Modus Formula 5000

Does anyone here have any photos of Mr Walkinshaws Modus Formula 5000s? Does anybody have any ideas as to what happened to the cars after their respective accidents, speaking to Nick Jordan he has no recollection of either car.

Interesting. To my knowledge there was only one car, based (I believe) on Walkinshaw's Atlantic tub - or should I say built from the wreckage of that chassis. This was the car that crashed at Brands, Twinny - although I thought the accident was at Westfield.

I don't remember the car being destroyed, but Walkinshaw suddenly appeared in the ex-Kuwashima F2 March 752 - Roy Kennedy ran the car. Again, the 3.4 Ford GA was the power unit - presumably the engine from the Modus (designated M5, unless I'm mistaken - the M4 was a hillclimb car I seem to recall).

According to oldracingcars.com Walkinshaw crashed his Atlantic Modus M3 [FA-003] at Brands on 20th July 1974 and didn't appear in Formula Atlantic again that year.

So the obvious question is: was this Atlantic chassis the basis for the M5?

Interestingly, Walkinshaw entered the last four F5000 races in 1974 - Oulton (where he failed to show), Snetterton (managed just 2 laps), Mallory (DNS - accident) and Brands (where he had an accident on the first lap). I had forgotten about these brief appearances, but they prove Andrew's point that this was indeed the first F5000 car we saw with the 3.4 Ford V6.

The F5000 car is listed as chassis number 003 for those four races (the same as the Atlantic chassis), but then appears in 1975 as M5-021-F5...so maybe there really were two cars...

It was Snetterton where I first saw it, like Alan's photo the car was painted white. It didn't seem like a proper F5000 to us at the time, not sounding a bit Chevy like!
I was at this meeting with Wattiez and his T330 although we broke in practice and did not start ( Can't remember why). I think this was the meeting where the new tarmac kept breaking up during practice at the new Esses on the shortened Snetterton. A temporary tyre chicane was put in for the race, many of the F5000 drivers helped to build it with the marshals in the lunch break after a long debate about where it should go. This is not the Esses we know today, it was a fast left/right sweep at the end of the new straight with the right part apex just before the old bridge support. After a fatality at a later meeting the Esses was tightened up exactly as it is today.

Originally posted by Allen Brown There were two F5000 Moduses, the first wrecked at Brands at the end of 1974, the second at Zolder in April 1975. After the second bit the dust, Tom bought the F2 March.

I'm pretty sure he did a rental deal with Roy Kennedy and I suspect - given his connections with Ford at the time - that the engines were provided at least at a special rate.

The 752 was discernibly different to the "pukka" F5000 75A that Alan Jones raced for RAM - much smaller and the engine note was also unusual for some reason. I remember at the time a few of us compared the noise of the three V6s and, whilst the Jones March and David Purley's Chevron sounded ostensibly the same, the 752 Ford was definitely more raucous!

I'm sure Roy Kennedy offered the car for sale as a rolling chassis at the end of the season.

The 1974 F5000 review in Autosport ( 23rd Jan '75) says the car was an uprated F2/Atlantic chassis.
The 3.4 Ford V6 was late entering the series as the 3-day week slowed its development. No further details on the Modus.

I'm pretty sure he did a rental deal with Roy Kennedy and I suspect - given his connections with Ford at the time - that the engines were provided at least at a special rate.

The 752 was discernibly different to the "pukka" F5000 75A that Alan Jones raced for RAM - much smaller and the engine note was also unusual for some reason. I remember at the time a few of us compared the noise of the three V6s and, whilst the Jones March and David Purley's Chevron sounded ostensibly the same, the 752 Ford was definitely more raucous!

I'm sure Roy Kennedy offered the car for sale as a rolling chassis at the end of the season.

Mark, the car was bought, presumably from Kennedy, by Val Musetti in mid-76. Val raced it as a '752' initially, then gradually modded/updated it into what he called a '761' for the 78 Aurora series. IIRC it went climbing/sprinting from 1979 onwards. Steve W ???

Originally posted by MCS I have a book where I used to write down all of the chassis numbers I could find (from the early seventies). There were loads of lists - but I can't find it. I've been looking for it for years!

Oh God...... I had one of those too. I finally gave up with it when I realised I was becoming more akin to a train spotter. Wish I still had it, though.

Mark, the car was bought, presumably from Kennedy, by Val Musetti in mid-76. Val raced it as a '752' initially, then gradually modded/updated it into what he called a '761' for the 78 Aurora series. IIRC it went climbing/sprinting from 1979 onwards. Steve W ???

I have a book where I used to write down all of the chassis numbers I could find

I travelled down to Angouleme last year with Duncan Rabagliati. In conversation I said that I used to have a BT21. "Do you remember the chassis number?"- "Yes - BT21-2". Out came the little book, and notes were taken. The same thing happened talking about my old Chevron. We stopped at a motorway services in France, near Le Mans, and there was a Lotus 11 in the foyer. Out came the book.....

Re Walkinshaw's Modus at Brands on the 20th October '74, I made up some places at the start in my Trojan T101 and was midfield on the first lap when I lost the plot at South Bank and spun over the crest and ended up in the centre of the track facing the oncoming traffic. I almost got away with it but Brian Robinson in his Mclaren M19C hit me, doing both our cars no good and Walkinshaw ran into him losing his nosecone. According to MN, Walkinshaw returned to the pits and retired. The same report says that the Modus had only just been rebuilt from a big shunt at Mallory the week before.